Archive for September, 2010
NEW MUSICIANS ON STAGE
| The crew for the shows remains more or less the same; still we like to present you two new members. | |
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Replacing Laurie Wisefield, playing guitar for the Electric Band, won’t be Roxette’s Jonas Isacsson, and also no Rob Winter who played in Charleroi 2010. It will be the guy who marked Rob Winter as the best guitar player of the Netherlands, namely Leendert Haaksma. Not only is he a teacher at the conservatory of Rotterdam, he’s also a session musician for different artists. |
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| For example, he played for Loïs Lane and Soulvation and he’s one of the fixed members of the band for Anouk. Other example, he also played at some recordings of Natalia. Leendert is much appreciated amongst the musicians, not only for his music but also for the construction of his amplifiers, HOOK AMPS. | |
| Except Leendert, the Electric Band will consist of Geert Keysers (keyboard); Rogier van Wegberg (base), Trevor Murell (drums) en Patrick De Smet (percussion and member of the orchestra). John Miles is, as last year, no member of the Electric Band. | |
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Herlinde Ghekiere will replace Hille Bemelmans as backing vocal for the shows in Antwerp. There, you will hear her with Marjolein Cneut and Liv Van Aelst. During the shows in The Netherlands and Germany, Hille Bemelmans will replace Liv Van Aelst. Herlinde Ghekiere was one of the backing vocals at the French NOTP shows a few years ago but for the rest we don’t know much (yet) about her; she’s coming out of the folk world but you might have heard and seen her with more classical pieces or even on You Tube as contra-alt with the performances of Wim Mertens. |
| The presentation in Belgium and The Netherlands will again be brought by Carl Huybrechts. | |
| The design of the set and light show are still in the capable hands of Geert Vanhout and Bjorn Tagemose. | |
| For the arrangements, Franck Van der Heijden, Dominique Vanhaegenberg and Geert Keysers will again be present. | |
Posted in Short MSG 2010
John Fogerty and the Los Angeles Symphonic Orchestra
Does John Fogerty match with a symphonic orchestra? We think so; Franck van der Heijden already made the (almost) impossible true by combining Status Quo with Il Novecento. So John and NOTP will match as well.
But that wasn’t alway the case.
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For the American National holiday in 2009, the Los Angeles Symphonic Orchestra played three shows in the Hollywood Bowl with American music; both marches as big band, opera and ballet, Broadway and Hollywood were brought up. The Hollywood Reporter seemded to like it. |
| One of the guests was John Fogerty and first played twelve songs with his band, and after that four more (Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Broken Down Cowboy, Don’t You Wish It Was True, Proud Mary) with his band and the orchestra. The reporter wrote: For his first-ever performance with a symphony orchestra, Fogerty picked “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” Things didn’t mesh during the song’s dramatic intro, so it seemed at first as if the pairing was a mismatch. But work it did, though he would have been better served to leave his band in the wings. |
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| On YouTube you have the image and sound of Have you ever seen the rain of the show of the 2nd of July 2009; you can’t be impressed by the stiff conductor who seems to have difficulties with the rhythm. Jan Vereecke wrote that the orchestra already mentioned after the first show that they didn’t want to do it again, so it ended after the first four songs. On this video you can see that John Fogerty played the next day, 3rd of July, Have you ever seen the rain without the orchestra on stage. | |
| The communication between band and orchestra wasn’t too good as well (as prove, this bad video of Proud Mary). A spectator on the “rd of July wrote that he did played a tender love song as an encore with the LA Philharmonic. | |
| An hilarious review of the show by a non-fan you can read here. | |
| John, as told by Jan, wanted to make something special at NOTP; his band isn’t present and he specifically asked that his hits would sound different to his solo performances and so the symphonic orchestra should have a leading role. That’s very cool! | |
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We expect that Fogerty will play the following hits: Down On The Corner, Bad Moon Rising, Rockin’ All Over The World, Have You Ever Seen The Rain, Long As I Can See The Light and Proud Mary. Indeed: you know Proud Mary of course in the version of Ike & Tina Turner but John did write the song; same goes for Rockin’ All Over The World which you probably know in the version of Status Quo. This only means that John Fogerty is a legend. |
| Unfortunately, no I put a spell on you on which many couples performed their first dance steps; again unfortunate but also no Suzy Q. but both songs are’t written by John. | |
| Surprisingly, he still sings his songs in the same key as which they were written 30 to 40 years ago! Is it the music that keeps the 65-year old guy on his feet? John, I’m a fan! | |
Posted in Short MSG 2010
2010 – New stuff on and off the stage
The show of the Night of the Proms show in 2009 were spectacular since they had to celebrate something with the 25th edition. In 2010 the show won’t be made by extras, pyrotechnics or special effects in the arena, but on the stage itself.
| There will be a new stage with fully new LED eauipment, which they use to light up six parts: the choir Fine Fleur (24 people), the Electric Band, 2 parts for the string instruments, the wood wind instruments, and of course the big stage in front for Robert Groslot, the artists and the backing vocals. |
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| The artists will get an extra entrance to the stage: left, right and now also in the center in front of Robert Groslot. | |
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In Antwerp and The Netherlands, the catwalk will remain unchange; because Grace Jones will fully use it! |
| The show, will be spectacular again, as promised by Geert Vanhout (genious behind the light), but totaly different compared to last year with the moving flowers. In the background, they will be using relief displays, where five video screen are moving and each capabe of showing different images; or used together as one big projectory screen. |
Posted in Short MSG 2010
When will I go to a NOTP show?
It is already decided that the Sportpaleis of Antwerp will host nine Night of the Proms shows (each starting at 20h30):
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| The organizers took some options with the artists for other days, based on the sales of the tickets. The program of 2010 is legendary so we hope that the Sportpaleis will be filled 13 times like in 2009! | |
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In the Gelredome of Arnhem (3x the size of the Ahoy) there is only one show booked for now on Saturday 13th of November. |
| Ahoy (Rotterdam) is already booked on: |
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| Each show in The Netherlands will start at 20:00; there are options available for both location for possible extra shows. | |
| Tickets for Antwerp and The Netherlands: www.teleticketservice.be (and let us be clear: we don’t get a precentage) | |
| In Germany, Night of the Proms will perform on the already annouced places (and no extra shows will be added): | |
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| Tickets for Germany: www.eventim.de | |
| For Italy or Poland there won’t be any shows in 2010. | |
Posted in Short MSG 2010
Countdown to Premiere Antwerp
Countdown finished. Click here to look how we were counting down to the premiere in Antwerp
Posted in news
Il Novecento and NOTP 2010
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Of course, Il Novecento doesn’t only supports the pop artists but will also, with or without Charlie Siem, take care of the classical part during the fall shows. |
| Standing out without a doubt, will be the Wedding March of Bartholy Felix Mendelssohn. Conductor Robert Groslot married during the summer of 2010 and so he proposed to play this well known piece. This wedding march, is the overture that Mendelssohn wrote for the performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. To support the musical piece during the show, the organization would like to address all married couples to send their most beautiful wedding pictures to bruiloftsmars@notp.com; the digital images will be shown during the shows. |  |
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In Charleroi 2010, Il Novecento brought a suite with music from John Williams from the movies of Harry Potter. Organizer Jan announces that this suite will be played as well during the fall shows, with images from the two new Harry Potter movies. Here you can listen to parts of the suite, commented by John Williams himself. |
Il Novecento will play some Vivaldi with Charlie Siem: The Summer from the Four Seasons.
Naturally, Robert Groslot’s favorite, Tsjaikovski, won’t be left behind, as well as the classical waltz. For now, we don’t have any news if Il Novecento will play Glazunov’s Chopiniana for the 200th birthday of Chopin, as they did in Charleroi. This year, we also celebrate the 150th birthday of Mahler; perhaps they choose something out of his repertoire.
Posted in Short MSG 2010
Countdown 2010
Just as in 2009, but much sooner this year, we count down to the premiere of the first NOTP show in Antwerp. Each 3 to 4 days we’ll publish relevant (and sometimes also less relevant) news regarding Night of the Proms.
Posted in news
NOTP 2010 – Presentation in different messages
Both before, during and after the press release on the 9th of September 2010, we receive a lot of information from official and ‘less official’ sources about the fall shows. We’re not looking for scoops, but we like it to bring you nice (sometimes less) relevant news. But we don’t publish everything because each show still has to surprise you!
That is why we will often bring you news regarding the preparations for the fall shows. And we’ll start with some general info, the press release itself.
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You could read almost the same in news papers or on different websites, as it was written in the press document. Some more information could be heard in the two interviews with Jan Vereecke and Charlie Siem on ATV TV |
| We don’t want to brag, but, careful as we try to be, we heard something more than that. That is what we will write about in the next news items in the upcoming month. |
The roots of the Night of the Proms can be found with two guys (supported with a wonderful team) of whom Jan Vereecke is standing in the spotlights the most and also leads the press release. Jan likes to explain with his hands.
Jan always wears a shirt with stripes, no tie which, as you can see, seems to be the dress code for several NOTP crew members.
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(from left to right Dirk Hohmeyer (NOTP Germany), Fred Int’Panis (press guy), Jan Vereecke (during interogation), Charlie Siem (performing), Robert Groslot (conductor).
| Only trombone player / arranger Dominique Vanhaegenberg stood out with his choice of clothes, but because of his many talents, all was forgiven. |
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| The press release is a good opportunity to bring the staff together; so a lot of plans are founded. Here we see Dirk Hohmeyer, Philippe Lengele, Dominique Vanhaegenberg and Geert Vanhout discuss the plans for the new stage. |
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And as always, the good and relaxed mood is noticed with which the musicians on and off the stage can bring out the best out the artists (even those with a difficult charisma).
Smiling for you are Robert Groslot, Geert Keyser and Patrick Desmet.
We promise that the next messages will be more serious.
Posted in Short MSG 2010
GRACE JONES in Antwerp and The Netherlands
We don’t often say it, but we’re very pleased with the booking of Grace Jones for the Night of the Proms in Antwerp and The Netherlands. Together with the confirmation of John Miles makes the program complete.
She’s 62 years old, 5.87 feet tall, model, actress (e.g. A View to a Kill with James Bond) and of course singer. A detailed overview of her career can be found on Wikipedia. Her presence is most remarkable since Grace Jones is still one of the largest style icons from the ’80s, not only due to her looks and her raging, sometimes shocking, behavior but also due to her special and steeled, almost metallic sounding, voice with a range of almost 3 octaves and the music she made, mostly in the first half of the ’80s, but also with her new album released in 2008.
This is both sound and image, music and show (she also promised to use the whole catwalk!).
Grace Jones on YouTube
Website
Fansite
Posted in news